A/N: Just a little one shot because I got distracted from my homework XD and because I feel guilty that my writer's block is preventing me from updating my story...
Disclaimer – I don't own the characters or anything. Rick Riordan does.
*Told in 3rd person POV*
Shades of Green
"Summertime," Annabeth thought. "Lots of free time now that I'm done with designing the new buildings for Olympus. All I have to do now is make sure they build it right. I can see Percy more often now."
Just then, the phone rang. The caller I.D said it was Trina, a daughter of Aphrodite who is one of Annabeth's close friends, that was calling her. Annabeth pressed talk on her phone and put it to her ear.
"Hi, Trina!" said Annabeth.
"Hey! You're still in New York City right?" asked Trina.
"Yeah..." replied Annabeth suspiciously. Her father and stepmother allowed her to rent an apartment in New York City so she can stay close to Olympus to supervise the builders.
"Well you're free now, right?" asked Trina happily.
"Yup. Why? You want to go hang out or something?" Annabeth said.
"Of course! Meet me in Roosevelt Field Mall in about an hour or so." Trina hung up.
"Uh-oh. We're going to the mall. What have I gotten myself into now?" thought Annabeth.
Annabeth got on the bus to Roosevelt Field. The whole trip took about forty five minutes. The bus was very crowded because it was a Saturday.
"This had better be good," thought Annabeth, "I do not want to spend a Saturday in a crowded bus smelling like puke for nothing."
Annabeth got off the bus. She saw Trina in front of the mall's big doors. As usual, Trina was wearing pink.
"ANNABETH!!!!" Trina bounded over to her and gave her a really big hug. "Come on! Let's see what we can buy. I never get to hang out with you these days because you're always SO busy. I'll pay of course," said Trina, without pausing to breathe.
"Has it ever occurred to you that I don't like the places that you hang out in?" replied Annabeth.
"No, but you always act like you like it."
"I'm not that great at acting. Your father is so much better," relied Annabeth.
The two girls walked into the store, still bickering.
The first store that Annabeth and Trina visited was a jewelery store. Obviously, it was Trina's idea. Annabeth wanted to visit the bookstore, not see some "sparkly stones" as Trina puts it.
Trina went to see how pretty and big the diamonds were. Annabeth, who promised to wait until Trina was done "Ooh-ing" and "Aah-ing" at everything, wandered around the store. She expressed no emotion at anything, not even to the sparkling opals and the best rubies and sapphires in the whole New York Area. Then she saw the emeralds; their shade of green looked very familiar...
The next store they went to was Gucci. Annabeth desperately wanted to bolt to the bookstore but Trina would probably have tied her up with the Hermès scarves from the store next door to Gucci.
Trina, now holding a whole bag of jewelery, was running around the Gucci store, figuring out what she could buy and carry out of the store without calling for help. She spent a lot of time choosing out three small purses, two wallets, and a few watches.
Meanwhile, Annabeth was inching closer and closer to the exit.
"The bookstore is right there! If I sneak out, buy a book, and come back here, Trina won't notice that I ever left."
Annabeth was about to dash for it when something caught her eye.
It was a bag, with a green stripe running down the middle. "The green," she thought. "It's the green that always catches my eye. The shade looks so familiar...the color of HIS eyes."
Trina, out of the corner of her eye, did see Annabeth prepare to make a run to the bookstore. She didn't try to stop her, because she knew that Annabeth was miserable in these types of stores.
"I'll let her get away with it this time. I asked her to hang out with me so we can enjoy ourselves but she's miserable now," Trina thought.
Trina saw Annabeth hesitate, and slowly walked over to a bag with a confused look on her face. It was one of the bigger bags, with a green stripe down the middle and green straps.
"That shade of green really looks like Percy's eyes. I guess that must be why she took an interest in it. Come to think of it, she was staring at the emeralds in the jewelry store."
Trina suddenly had a good idea. She pulled out her cellphone, ready to text Percy.
Meet me in the food court Roosevelt Field Mall
xoxo Trina
Percy's phone vibrated in his pocket.
"Thank the gods for text messaging. Demigods finally found a way to communicate without alerting any monsters in a hundred-mile radius," thought Percy.
He looked at the screen. The message was from Trina, asking him to meet her in Roosevelt Field Mall.
"Weird," he thought. "She usually just ignores me at camp. Why would she be asking me to meet her at Roosevelt Field? Oh, well. I don't have anything better to do this afternoon."
He texted back:
K. I'll be there in an hour.
Trina's phone vibrated in her hand. She read Percy's message in a second.
"Good, he's coming. I'll leave Annabeth in the bookstore ten minutes before he's supposed to be here and go to the food court. Now, where should we go for fifty minutes?" thought Trina. "Maybe we should go to Dolce & Gabbana to try on sunglasses. I should buy Annabeth some green tinted shades for her birthday..."
Instead of going to Dolce & Gabbana as planned, the two girls went to Converse instead. Annabeth was interested in sneakers more than flats, high heels, and pumps. Trina didn't mind because Converse high tops looked pretty nice if you had capris on.
Annabeth and Trina spent a lot of time trying on shoes. Trina noticed the time and decided to lead Annabeth to the bookstore.
"Hey, let's go to the bookstore now," Trina said to her friend. "I'll buy some food for all of us while you're in there."
"Alright!" Annabeth said happily. "Finally! Bookstore here I come!" she thought in her head. She had a vague feeling that something was wrong. "When do Aphrodite children eat? I thought they practically starved themselves to death just to look beautiful. Oh, well. A bookstore's a bookstore."
"Yes! She stayed at the bookstore! Of course I won't buy any food. I barely eat anything. It's too fattening," Trina thought as she made her way to the food court.
Trina spotted Percy looking around. She waved to him; Percy saw her and walked over.
"Percy! It's been a long time!" babbled Trina. "He's still as cute as ever with a tan but he'll probably never think of me. He's all Annabeth's." sighed Trina inwardly.
"Hi Trina," said Percy. "I wonder why she would tell me to come here with her. It better be not because she needs help carrying all those shopping bags," thought Percy, looking at the shopping bags in Trina's hands suspiciously.
Trina saw Percy glance at the number of shopping bags in her hand. "Gods, I'm not weak! I've carried a lot more bags than this before!" thought Trina crossly.
"You do know that Annabeth is here with me too right?" said Trina, attempting to chat with him.
"She is?" asked Percy, "At a mall? Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I had to drag her with me. I left her in Barnes & Noble just to come here," was Trina's reply.
"I haven't seen her in a long time because of the rebuilding of Olympus," thought Percy. "This would be a nice time to see her again."
The two walked out of the food court, heading toward the bookstore.
"Hey, Wise Girl," Percy said, sneaking up on Annabeth.
Annabeth jumped. She didn't hear anyone sneak up behind her. "Only one person can say my nickname and make it sound so perfect..." thought Annabeth. She turned around, knowing who it was.
"PERCY!" she exclaimed happily, throwing her arms around his waist. "I've missed you!"
"Missed you too, Wise Girl," said Percy, trying not to laugh at her enthusiastic reaction. He bent his head down and their lips touched.
Trina, watching all of this, took a picture with her phone. "I've gotta put this on Facebook..." she thought, smiling.
A/N: Got a little OoC at the end XP. I had to use an OC that was a daughter of Aphrodite since they would be the ones with enough power to drag someone like Annabeth to the mall. I was going to use Silena but I remembered that she was dead....